


Running On Empty

by Dance_Elle_Dance



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 02:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4902166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dance_Elle_Dance/pseuds/Dance_Elle_Dance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amy hears the Doctor murmur a name in his sleep. In somewhat disappointment, she realizes it isn't hers. (Originally posted on 8/28/11.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running On Empty

**Author's Note:**

> Re-post of another DW fanfic. Please enjoy!

He's sleeping.

Amy thinks this is a rather interesting occurrence. She's never seen her Raggedy Doctor sleep before, so she figures that this is cause for observation. She wanders out to where he's fallen asleep beneath the TARDIS's console, hanging on that silly little swing of his. He looks exhausted, more tired than she's ever seen him awake, which is strange. His face is relaxed, though, but it is that amount of relaxation that makes her see how truly tired he looks. His head leans against one of the straps of the swing, messy hair falling over one side of his face. His chest rises and falls evenly, and she marvels at just how thin he is. One of his hands has twined with the strap of the swing, while the other holds his screwdriver limply. She finds herself smiling even at that.

She walks forward timidly, not sure what she's doing but unable to _not_ do it. Amy tries to make her footfalls as quiet as possible, thanking herself that she didn't wear her slippers out of bed tonight. She's trying to remember what exactly she was going to ask the Doctor but can't find anything in the recesses of her mind that can remind herself.

She's only a bit away from him when she hears it.

It's nothing big, anyone else would have missed it. But since it's Amelia Pond and this is the Doctor, she hears it. Some kind of word breathed between an inhale and an exhale. This causes Amy to stop short, staring at the man in front of her as if she'd never seen him before. She crosses her arms lighty, placing her hands on her elbows and tap, tap, taps her violet-colored nails because she's not sure what to do with this.

She squints at him, as if it were her vision failing her rather than her ears, but she's certain she heard him say _something..._

_How cute, the Doctor sleep-talks,_ she thinks wryly, staring at him with a smirk on her features. Surely she could tease him for this later. As soon as she finds out what he's saying.

However, when she focuses on him again, the relaxed look from before is gone, replaced by a strained, knitted look to his face. His eyebrows are drawn together and she can clearly see that his jaw is clenched.

Whatever he's dreaming about...it surely isn't pleasant.

Amy is immediately worried. The Doctor is her best friend, and if something that can hurt him this bad is...well, hurting him right now, then she must do something, right?

There it is again, the same sounding word coming from the Doctor's lips, spilling forth unbidden in sleep. She finds herself pursing her lips trying to make out the name and stares at him a bit harder than necessary. She feels almost like the force of her gaze is enough to wake him up, so she ends up staring at a random button glowing next to him.

Then, almost ironically, she hears it.

Just when she wasn't listening for it, the word comes from his mouth, a strange little thing full of sadness. So much sadness that it causes her heart to clench to hear it.

_"Rose."_

With a jolt, she realizes the word was a name. A woman's name. A name that her Doctor was saying as if it was something completely precious and full of awful memories. Amy doesn't know how she can decipher that much from just that one word, but she can.

She gulps and uncrosses her arms, finding one of them stroking back a strand of red hair. Amy blinks a few times, feeling suddenly confused and out-of-place, like she's intruded on a private moment.

The name is said again, this time with a touch of desperation. Amy's chest feels so tight right then that she has to take a few steps back and lean against the railing. Her long fingers wrap around the cool metal and she lets out a sigh as the flurry of questions and thoughts rear their ugly heads.

Who's Rose?

Why does her name make the Doctor so sad?

She must have been important to him...

Where is she now?

_Why do you care?_

Just as millions of other thoughts crash upon her, the Doctor stirs. Amy jolts, letting out a slight scream and staring at him with large eyes. This causes him to awake fully, almost falling out of the makeshift swing, but catching himself at the last minute. He looks adorably bewildered, brushing the messy strands of hair out of his face and shaking his head slightly. He scratches his neck with his screwdriver and finally his eyes focus on Amy.

"Well, hello there, Pond," he smiles at her, but he just looks so tired. Amy immediately feels guilty.

"Hello, Doctor," she replies, but her voice sounds a bit shaky, even to her. The whole Rose thing has gotten to her more than it should have, and she feels it throughout every cell in her body.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh, no." She gives him a smile that feels a bit too forced. "Nothing at all."

"Ah...then, why are you down here?"

This brings Amy up short. She had completely forgotten her reasoning for being down here in the first place, for being completely voyeuristic and intruding on his privacy and all that jazz had taken priority over whatever it was she had wanted before. "I...kind of forgot."

"Well, that happens to us all," he says and grins at her with that sort of naivete that always accompanies him.

She wants to ask him - so desperately it hurts her - who Rose is. She wants to know, wants to have this little mystery solved so she doesn't keep herself up the rest of the night, wants to know that whoever it is that this Rose character doesn't have any kind of pull over him now.

But she knows that last bit is a lie.

Amy can see just now, how his eyes are a bit sadder than usual. He's trying to hide it, sure, but that's just how the Doctor is. He's swinging idly now, looking up at the mess of wires and things hanging over his head and tinkering with them.

And she can't bring herself to do it.

So, instead she asks, "Did you sleep well, Doctor?"

This causes him to tense ever-so-slighty, but he recovers quick enough that she wouldn't have noticed it if she were any other person.

"I've slept better, but I'm not worried about that," he says, giving her a tentative smile. It's almost like he knows she must have heard something, but he's not saying it. It drives her crazy, but he goes back to working and again she just feels so bad about what she had just heard that she doesn't say anything else about it.

"I think...I'm going to go back to sleep for a while..."

The Doctor, grinning brighter than ever, turns to her again and says, "Right, right! Sleep well, Amelia."

She gives him a smile and excuses herself, headed back to her room with a heavy mind and an even heavier heart. Amy collapses into her bed as if her body is made of lead, feeling tireder than she'd felt in the longest while.

She doesn't fall asleep for a while, but when she does, it's hardly restful.

Because Amy dreams nothing of nothing but her Doctor - her Doctor wandering aimlessly, picking the loveliest red roses only to have them turn to ash in his hands.


End file.
